The v3.01 update is now final and ready for download from Amazon servers, for all Kindle 3's.  Apparently, their private feedback was as good as feedback seen on the Amazon forums. See yesterday's original report of the v3.01 update for the details that were in that. At the linked page (above), Amazon also states: ' We're excited to announce that a new, free software update is available for the latest generation Kindle 6" device.  This software update adds the ability to create a new Amazon.com account directly from your Kindle, as well as additional performance...

Amazon wants feedback on an "early preview of the next software update" for Kindle 3 and refers to this update-preview as software update version 3.01. They stress this is offered so that "Customers who want to try this early release of the software and provide feedback can download the update from their servers." Amazon explains that this update will add ' the ability to create a new Amazon.com account directly from your Kindle, as well as additional performance improvements. After installing this update, please share your feedback with us at kindle-response@amazon.com.  We look forward to hearing about...

   1. Smashwords Smashwords continues to kick goals in self-publishing. In an increasingly crowded market, I just don’t think you can beat Smashwords for ease of use, price (you can’t do better than free), and distribution. Fling your words to Smashwords, and you’ll quickly end up with an ebook in multiple formats, playable on all devices, and distributed to iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and the Diesel eBook Store. Soon they’ll be adding Amazon to the already impressive list. The website could use prettying up, but this offering is the best one-stop-shop free solution out there. Other services...

Take a print title and add an iPhone-based walking tour of the many locations mentioned in the book. If you can’t make it to London in the near future the app will likely still prove interesting and informative. New from the Wellcome Collection and Library. From a Blog Post: Wellcome Collection have produced a free iPhone app to accompany the Medical London: City of Diseases, City of Cures book. The app offers an audiovisual tour of Bloomsbury and the surrounding area, delving into the medical heritage quite literally on the Wellcome Library’s doorstep. The original work by author Richard...

 + Textbooks Up Their Game (by Jeffrey Trachtenberg via Wall Street Journal) Although electronic book sales have exploded, digital college textbooks have been slow to get off the ground, in part because of high prices and hardware concerns. Now, a former Apple Inc. employee, Matt Mac Innis, is trying to shake up the market with a new approach that taps into the iPad’s strengths. His tech start-up, Inkling, is introducing its first four full-length interactive college textbooks using its software platform, which is designed specifically for Apple’s iPad—a marked departure from e-textbooks that are almost...

  The “big” news ebook reading devices recently has been Amazon’s new Kindles with their Pearl screen. OK, ebookers got the point: Amazon is moving right along in its attempt to capture the wallets of all ebookers. Which raises the question, here in the United States, “Sony, Sony (and Barnes & Noble, as well) — Wherefore art thou?” Not a hint, not a misspoken word, not anything leaked to eBookland about a response by Sony and/or B&N to Amazon’s new Kindles. I, for one, am desperately seeking solace, especially from Sony, that there will be new competitive...

By now Stanza is the most robust e-reading application for iOS. It’s packed with features other apps, like Kindle or iBooks are missing. However it has one big disadvantage: no cloud-based bookshelf. The application is associated to a device not an account. There is no way to sync books and bookmarks like in Kindle. It’s fine when you have one device. Things get complicated to those iPhone or iPod Touch users who are buying iPads. They realize that to read books they collected in Stanza, they need to download them again. There are a few ways to transfer books to Stanza. I’d...

Nick Spalding, author of the experimental written-all-in-one-sitting novel Life…With No Breaks (readers on Amazon seem to either love it or hate it), announced yesterday that he’s launched a new indie author blog called Spalding’s Racket: I’ve created [it] to promote books written by independent authors. It’s a place for you to find out about new books you might like to read. I’m making sure that only professionally laid out books make it on the blog. It’s not a review site per se, but I won’t be posting just anything up and...

For secret agent fans of all types, the last few weeks of official government exchanges between Russia and the United States has been a treat!  In light of this breaking news as well as a personal interest in spying and national intrigue, I thought it might be interesting to see what sort of information is available for ereaders like ourselves. What I’ve found is truly amazing, with downloadable resources from the CIA, FBI, OSS and many others. Besides just the stories, I thought this would be a great chance to use my Android phone as well as the iPad, to see...

The Kindle Basic Web browser: Some Kindle owners take advantage of the free, included, 24/7 cellular wireless when in the car, without a GPS unit or suitable map, and wanting to find out how to get somewhere. The information below also includes options for walking, using local transit, and bicyling. Since these are text navigation directions rather than maps, they load quickly and you can enlarge the font for those. A shortcut to get to the Directions website is at the bottom. I haven't tried any map pages from the non-device-specific mobile-unit Google Maps page used...

As I re-read this recent NY Times article about Google's possible role in the ebook retailer world I started thinking more about how the whole marketplace could shake out. It's important to note that Google Editions is a program that's been talked about for a couple of years but still hasn't materialized. The latest rumor is it will launch very soon...pretty much the same rumor that's been around the last couple of years! Nevertheless, at some point I'm convinced Google will produce an ebook retailing platform and it's sure to have an impact on our industry. Google Editions...

Sports Illustrated is the latest big-name magazine publisher to offer an iPad edition. It's a nice looking product, btw. The app itself is free and it includes a sample of what's to come. It joins the likes of Time, Wired and Newsweek...but they all currently have the same limitation: You can only buy individual issues, not sign up for a one-year subscription. Worse, most of them seem to think they can charge the full print cover price for each iPad edition. I bought the initial Wired edition for $4.99 but I'm not buying the second one. ...